Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 1)

Download Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 1) PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 147356719X
Total Pages : 1032 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (735 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 1) by : Chips Channon

Download or read book Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 1) written by Chips Channon and published by Random House. This book was released on 2021-03-04 with total page 1032 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sunday Times bestselling edition of Chips Channon's remarkable diaries. Born in Chicago in 1897, 'Chips' Channon settled in England after the Great War, married into the immensely wealthy Guinness family, and served as Conservative MP for Southend-on-Sea from 1935 until his death in 1958. His career was unremarkable. His diaries are quite the opposite. Elegant, gossipy and bitchy by turns, they are the unfettered observations of a man who went everywhere and who knew everybody. Whether describing the antics of London society in the interwar years, or the growing scandal surrounding his close friends Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson during the abdication crisis, or the mood in the House of Commons in the lead up to the Munich crisis, his sense of drama and his eye for the telling detail are unmatched. These are diaries that bring a whole epoch vividly to life. A heavily abridged and censored edition of the diaries was published in 1967. Only now, sixty years after Chips's death, can an extensive text be shared. ________________________________ 'Chips perfectly embodied the qualities vital to the task: a capacious ear for gossip, a neat turn of phrase, a waspish desire to tell all, and easy access to the highest social circles across Europe.[...] Blending Woosterish antics with a Lady Bracknellesque capacity for acid comment. Replete with fascinating insights.' Jesse Norman, Financial Times

Chips

Download Chips PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Phoenix
ISBN 13 : 9781842120651
Total Pages : 512 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (26 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Chips by : Henry Channon

Download or read book Chips written by Henry Channon and published by Phoenix. This book was released on 2000-11 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sir Henry "Chips" Channon's position as a Member of Parliament allowed him entree to a privileged world of socializing, politics, and historic events. The years covered in this volume, 1934-53, recall a vanished world in which every social and public figure of the day made the party, joining in endless gossip. Culled from some three million words from the original diaries, the editor's selection gives us the pivotal moments and characters of history, etched indelibly by a master observer. "How sharp an eye? What neat malice! How, in their fashion, well written and truthful and honest they are!"--"Malcolm Muggeridge, Observer."

Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 2)

Download Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 2) PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 1473567203
Total Pages : 1081 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (735 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 2) by : Chips Channon

Download or read book Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 2) written by Chips Channon and published by Random House. This book was released on 2021-09-09 with total page 1081 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second volume of the remarkable, Sunday Times bestselling diaries of Chips Channon. This second volume of the bestselling diaries of Henry 'Chips' Channon takes us from the heady aftermath of the Munich agreement, when the Prime Minister so admired by Chips was credited with having averted a general European conflagration, through the rapid unravelling of appeasement, and on to the tribulations of the early years of the Second World War. It closes with a moment of hope, as Channon, in recording the fall of Mussolini in July 1943, reflects: 'The war must be more than half over.' For much of this period, Channon is genuinely an eye-witness to unfolding events. He reassures Neville Chamberlain as he fights for his political life in May 1940. He chats to Winston Churchill while the two men inspect the bombed-out chamber of the House of Commons a few months later. From his desk at the Foreign Office he charts the progress of the war. But with the departure of his boss 'Rab' Butler to the Ministry of Education, and Channon's subsequent exclusion from the corridors of power, his life changes - and with it the preoccupations and tone of the diaries. The conduct of the war remains a constant theme, but more personal preoccupations come increasingly to the fore. As he throws himself back into the pleasures of society, he records his encounters with the likes of Noël Coward, Prince Philip, General de Gaulle and Oscar Wilde's erstwhile lover Lord Alfred Douglas. He describes dinners with members of European royal dynasties, and recounts gossip and scandal about the great, the good and the less good. And he charts the implosion of his marriage and his burgeoning, passionate friendship with a young officer on Wavell's staff. These are diaries that bring a whole epoch vividly to life.

Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 3): 1943-57

Download Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 3): 1943-57 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 1529151740
Total Pages : 1201 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (291 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 3): 1943-57 by : Chips Channon

Download or read book Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries (Volume 3): 1943-57 written by Chips Channon and published by Random House. This book was released on 2022-09-08 with total page 1201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The third and final volume of the remarkable Sunday Times bestselling diaries of Sir Henry 'Chips' Channon ___________________________________________ 'An utterly addictive glimpse of London high society and politics in the 40s and 50s.' Robert Harris 'An instant classic . . . quite simply the greatest social and political diaries of the 20th century.' Daily Telegraph 'Rich, exuberant, copious and shatteringly honest.' Spectator 'A scurrilous read. Fascinating. Gripping!' Alan Titchmarsh 'Chips writes with such vividness that one feels one is living each day in his exalted company.' The Oldie _______________________________________ This final volume of the unexpurgated diaries of Sir Henry 'Chips' Channon begins as the Second World War is turning in the Allies' favour. It ends with Chips descending into poor health but still able to turn a pointed phrase about the political events that swirl around him and the great and the good with whom he mingles. Throughout these final fourteen years Chips assiduously describes events in and around Westminster, gossiping about individual MPs' ambitions and indiscretions, but also rising powerfully to the occasion to capture the mood of the House on VE Day or the ceremony of George VI's funeral. His energies, though, are increasingly absorbed by a private life that at times reaches Byzantine levels of complexity. We encounter the London of the theatre and the cinema, peopled by such figures as John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh and Douglas Fairbanks Jr, as well as a seemingly endless grand parties at which Chips might well rub shoulders with Cecil Beaton, the Mountbattens, or any number of dethroned European monarchs. He has been described as 'The greatest British diarist of the 20th century'. This final volume fully justifies that accolade.

The Duff Cooper Diaries

Download The Duff Cooper Diaries PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN 13 : 1780227507
Total Pages : 780 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (82 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Duff Cooper Diaries by : John Julius Norwich

Download or read book The Duff Cooper Diaries written by John Julius Norwich and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2014-03-20 with total page 780 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The long awaited and highly revealing diaries of the politician, diplomat, and socialite (married to Lady Diana Cooper) 'This is a fabulous, jaw-dropping read' SUNDAY TIMES 'Duff Cooper was as close to the action as anyone during the dramatic events of the mid-20th century. He was also comically priapic, committing enough sexual indiscretions to fill a dozen diaries' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Fascinating for two things: their testament to an exhilarating century and their witness to a vanished age of power and privilege ... What a man' OBSERVER Duff Cooper was a first-rate witness of just about every significant event from 1914 to 1950. His diary includes some magnificent set pieces - as a young soldier at the end of WWI, as a politician during the General Strike of 1926, as King Edward VIII's friend at the time of the Abdication, and from Paris after the liberation in 1944, when he became British ambassador. If Duff Cooper's name has dimmed in the 50 years since his death, publication of these diaries will bring him to the fore once again. His family have long resisted publication - indeed Duff Cooper's nephew, the publisher Rupert Hart-Davis, was so shocked by the sexual revelations that he suggested to John Julius Norwich that it might be best for all concerned if they were burnt. Now, superbly edited by John Julius Norwich, who familial link ensures all kinds of additional information as footnotes, these diaries join the ranks.

Poet of Revolution

Download Poet of Revolution PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691241732
Total Pages : 512 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Poet of Revolution by : Nicholas McDowell

Download or read book Poet of Revolution written by Nicholas McDowell and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-25 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking biography of Milton’s formative years that provides a new account of the poet’s political radicalization John Milton (1608–1674) has a unique claim on literary and intellectual history as the author of both Paradise Lost, the greatest narrative poem in English, and prose defences of the execution of Charles I that influenced the French and American revolutions. Tracing Milton’s literary, intellectual, and political development with unprecedented depth and understanding, Poet of Revolution is an unmatched biographical account of the formation of the mind that would go on to create Paradise Lost—but would first justify the killing of a king. Biographers of Milton have always struggled to explain how the young poet became a notorious defender of regicide and other radical ideas such as freedom of the press, religious toleration, and republicanism. In this groundbreaking intellectual biography of Milton’s formative years, Nicholas McDowell draws on recent archival discoveries to reconcile at last the poet and polemicist. He charts Milton’s development from his earliest days as a London schoolboy, through his university life and travels in Italy, to his emergence as a public writer during the English Civil War. At the same time, McDowell presents fresh, richly contextual readings of Milton’s best-known works from this period, including the “Nativity Ode,” “L’Allegro” and “Il Penseroso,” Comus, and “Lycidas.” Challenging biographers who claim that Milton was always a secret radical, Poet of Revolution shows how the events that provoked civil war in England combined with Milton’s astonishing programme of self-education to instil the beliefs that would shape not only his political prose but also his later epic masterpiece.

LORD OF HOSTS THE LIFE OF SIR HENRY 'CHIPS' CHANNON

Download LORD OF HOSTS THE LIFE OF SIR HENRY 'CHIPS' CHANNON PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 1329807456
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (298 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis LORD OF HOSTS THE LIFE OF SIR HENRY 'CHIPS' CHANNON by : Richard Carreño

Download or read book LORD OF HOSTS THE LIFE OF SIR HENRY 'CHIPS' CHANNON written by Richard Carreño and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2016-01-04 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Lord of Hosts The Life of Sir Henry "Chips" Channon' by Richard Carreño is the first full-length biography of the controversial Anglo-American member of the British Parliament and a flamboyant 20th century London socialite.

Emerson

Download Emerson PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520918371
Total Pages : 705 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (29 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Emerson by : Robert D. Richardson Jr.

Download or read book Emerson written by Robert D. Richardson Jr. and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2015-04-22 with total page 705 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recipient of the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most important figures in the history of American thought, religion, and literature. The vitality of his writings and the unsettling power of his example continue to influence us more than a hundred years after his death. Now Robert D. Richardson Jr. brings to life an Emerson very different from the old stereotype of the passionless Sage of Concord. Drawing on a vast amount of new material, including correspondence among the Emerson brothers, Richardson gives us a rewarding intellectual biography that is also a portrait of the whole man. These pages present a young suitor, a grief-stricken widower, an affectionate father, and a man with an abiding genius for friendship. The great spokesman for individualism and self-reliance turns out to have been a good neighbor, an activist citizen, a loyal brother. Here is an Emerson who knew how to laugh, who was self-doubting as well as self-reliant, and who became the greatest intellectual adventurer of his age. Richardson has, as much as possible, let Emerson speak for himself through his published works, his many journals and notebooks, his letters, his reported conversations. This is not merely a study of Emerson's writing and his influence on others; it is Emerson's life as he experienced it. We see the failed minister, the struggling writer, the political reformer, the poetic liberator. The Emerson of this book not only influenced Thoreau, Fuller, Whitman, Dickinson, and Frost, he also inspired Nietzsche, William James, Baudelaire, Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, and Jorge Luis Borges. Emerson's timeliness is persistent and striking: his insistence that literature and science are not separate cultures, his emphasis on the worth of every individual, his respect for nature. Richardson gives careful attention to the enormous range of Emerson's readings—from Persian poets to George Sand—and to his many friendships and personal encounters—from Mary Moody Emerson to the Cherokee chiefs in Boston—evoking both the man and the times in which he lived. Throughout this book, Emerson's unquenchable vitality reaches across the decades, and his hold on us endures.

Malice in Wonderland

Download Malice in Wonderland PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1643138448
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (431 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Malice in Wonderland by : Hugo Vickers

Download or read book Malice in Wonderland written by Hugo Vickers and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The witty and perceptive diaries kept by Cecil Beaton's authorized biographer during his many fascinating encounters with extraordinary—often legendary—characters in his search for the real Cecil Beaton. Hugo Vickers's life took a dramatic turn in 1979 when the legendary Sir Cecil Beaton invited him to be his authorised biographer. The excitement of working with the famous photographer was dashed only days later when Cecil Beaton died. But the journey had begun - Vickers was entrusted with Beaton's papers, diaries and, most importantly, access to his friends and contemporaries. In Malice in Wonderland, Vickers shares excerpts from his personal diaries kept during this period. For five years, Vickers travelled the world and talked to some of the most fascinating and important social and cultural figures of the time, including royalty such as the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, film stars such as Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Julie Andrews, writers such as Truman Capote, and photographers such as Irving Penn and Horst. And not only Beaton's friends - Vickers sought out the enemies too, notably Irene Selznick. He was taken under the wings of Lady Diana Cooper, Clarissa Avon and Diana Vreeland. Drawn into Beaton's world and accepted by its members, Vickers the emerging biographer also began his own personal adventure. The outsider became the insider - Beaton's friends became his friends. Malice in Wonderland is a fascinating portrait of a now disappeared world, and vividly and sensitively portrays some of its most fascinating characters as we travel with Vickers on his quest.

King's Counsellor

Download King's Counsellor PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN 13 : 9781474618205
Total Pages : 496 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (182 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis King's Counsellor by : Alan Lascelles

Download or read book King's Counsellor written by Alan Lascelles and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2021-09-14 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Assistant Private Secretary to four monarchs, 'Tommy' Lascelles had a ringside seat from which to observe the workings of the royal household and Downing Street during the first half of the 20th century. These fascinating diaries begin with Edward VIII's abdication and end with George VI's death and his daughter Elizabeth's Coronation. In between we see George VI at work and play, a portrait more intimate than any other previously published. This compelling account also includes Princess Margaret's relationship with Peter Townsend, and throws an intriguing new light on the way in which King George VI and Winston Churchill worked together during the Second World War.

Sigmund Freud

Download Sigmund Freud PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521283854
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (838 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Sigmund Freud by : Richard Wollheim

Download or read book Sigmund Freud written by Richard Wollheim and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1981-03-23 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This intellectual biography of Freud presents a fresh and thorough analysis of the whole body of his writings. Each of these is studied in its context, and their chronology is shown to be of great importance. The author demonstrates how Freud's exploratory and sometimes hesitant efforts to explain all that he discovered of mental abnormality are to be properly understood only in light of his quest for a general theory of the mind. This reissue contains a new Preface by Professor Wollheim that takes account of recent critical work on Freud.

Henry 'Chips' Channon: The Diaries (Volume 3): 1943-57

Download Henry 'Chips' Channon: The Diaries (Volume 3): 1943-57 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 1529151724
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (291 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Henry 'Chips' Channon: The Diaries (Volume 3): 1943-57 by : Chips Channon

Download or read book Henry 'Chips' Channon: The Diaries (Volume 3): 1943-57 written by Chips Channon and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2022-10-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This third and final volume of the unexpurgated diaries of Sir Henry 'Chips' Channon begins as the Second World War is turning in the Allies' favour. It ends with Chips descending into poor health but still able to turn a pointed phrase about the political events that swirl around him and the great and the good with whom he mingles. Throughout these final fourteen years Chips assiduously describes events in and around Westminster, gossiping about individual MPs' ambitions and indiscretions, but also rising powerfully to the occasion to capture the mood of the House on VE Day or the ceremony of George VI's funeral. His energies, though, are increasingly absorbed by a private life that at times reaches Byzantine levels of complexity. We encounter the London of the theatre and the cinema, peopled by such figures as John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh and Douglas Fairbanks Jr, as well as a seemingly endless grand parties at which Chips might well rub shoulders with Cecil Beaton, the Mountbattens, or any number of dethroned European monarchs. He has been described as 'The greatest British diarist of the 20th century'. This final volume fully justifies that accolade.

The Glorious Guinness Girls

Download The Glorious Guinness Girls PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Grand Central Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1538720256
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (387 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Glorious Guinness Girls by : Emily Hourican

Download or read book The Glorious Guinness Girls written by Emily Hourican and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From London to Ireland during the 1920s, this glorious, gripping, and richly textured story takes us to the heart of the remarkable real-life story of the Guinness Girls—perfect for fans of Downton Abbey and Julian Fellowes' Belgravia. Descendants of the founder of the Guinness beer empire, they were the toast of 1920s high society, darlings of the press, with not a care in the world. But Felicity knows better. Sent to live with them as a child because her mother could no longer care for her, she grows up as the sisters’ companion. Both an outsider and a part of the family, she witnesses the complex lives upstairs and downstairs, sees the compromises and sacrifices beneath the glamorous surface. Then, at a party one summer’s evening, something happens that sends shock waves through the entire household. Inspired by a remarkable true story and fascinating real events, The Glorious Guinness Girls is an unforgettable novel about the haves and have-nots, one that will make you ask if where you find yourself is where you truly belong.

Socrates in Love

Download Socrates in Love PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1408883902
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (88 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Socrates in Love by : Armand D’Angour

Download or read book Socrates in Love written by Armand D’Angour and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-03-07 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An innovative and insightful exploration of the passionate early life of Socrates and the influences that led him to become the first and greatest of philosophers Socrates: the philosopher whose questioning gave birth to the ideas of Western thought, and whose execution marked the end of the Athenian Golden Age. Yet despite his pre-eminence among the great thinkers of history, little of his life story is known. What we know tends to begin in his middle age and end with his trial and death. Our conception of Socrates has relied upon Plato and Xenophon – men who met him when he was in his fifties and a well-known figure in war-torn Athens. There is mystery at the heart of Socrates' story: what turned the young Socrates into a philosopher? What drove him to pursue with such persistence, at the cost of social acceptance and ultimately of his life, a whole new way of thinking about the meaning of existence? In this revisionist biography, Armand D'Angour draws on neglected sources to explore the passions and motivations of young Socrates, showing how love transformed him into the philosopher he was to become. What emerges is the figure of Socrates as never previously portrayed: a heroic warrior, an athletic wrestler and dancer – and a passionate lover. Socrates in Love sheds new light on the formative journey of the philosopher, finally revealing the identity of the woman who Socrates claimed inspired him to develop ideas that have captivated thinkers for 2,500 years.

Chips

Download Chips PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 542 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Chips by : Sir Henry Channon

Download or read book Chips written by Sir Henry Channon and published by . This book was released on 1967 with total page 542 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Becoming Beauvoir

Download Becoming Beauvoir PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350047198
Total Pages : 496 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (5 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Becoming Beauvoir by : Kate Kirkpatrick

Download or read book Becoming Beauvoir written by Kate Kirkpatrick and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-08-22 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “One is not born a woman, but becomes one”, Simone de Beauvoir A symbol of liberated womanhood, Simone de Beauvoir's unconventional relationships inspired and scandalised her generation. A philosopher, writer, and feminist icon, she won prestigious literary prizes and transformed the way we think about gender with The Second Sex. But despite her successes, she wondered if she had sold herself short. Her liaison with Jean-Paul Sartre has been billed as one of the most legendary love affairs of the twentieth century. But for Beauvoir it came at a cost: for decades she was dismissed as an unoriginal thinker who 'applied' Sartre's ideas. In recent years new material has come to light revealing the ingenuity of Beauvoir's own philosophy and the importance of other lovers in her life. This ground-breaking biography draws on never-before-published diaries and letters to tell the fascinating story of how Simone de Beauvoir became herself.

A Moment's Liberty

Download A Moment's Liberty PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 9780712673044
Total Pages : 516 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (73 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Moment's Liberty by : Virginia Woolf

Download or read book A Moment's Liberty written by Virginia Woolf and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1997 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A work of the highest imaginative genius, with powers of perception and description unexplaned in our time' Isaiah Berlin. Virginia Woolf turned to her diary as to an intimate friend, to whom she could freely and spontaneously confide the thoughts and images uppermost in her mind. Whether describing public events or the joys and trials of domestic life, gossiping about her friends or wrestling with the difficulties of her art, gossiping about her friends or wrestling with the difficulties of her art, Virginia Woolf writes with unfailing grace, courage and honesty, and a lively wit which make her one of the most moving and entertaining diarists of this, or any, century. 'The moment I begin to read that light, clear, elegant prose I am seduced. (Virginia Woolf's)nephew Quentin Bell claims that the 30 volumes of Woolf's diary are a masterpiece. Anne Olivier Bell has reduced them to a single volume. I think it is still a masterpiece. ' A S Byatt, EVENING STANDARD